Dr. Joseph A. Gilchrist was the first human to receive experimental insulin treatment from Dr. Frederick Banting and his then-student Charles Best. He was born in 1893 in Brantford, Ontario, where he lived before attending and graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in arts and medicine. The height of the first World War, he joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps after graduation, where he achieved the rank of captain. Unfortunately, he was also diagnosed with diabetes during this time, and as such was unable to travel overseas for his service.

Following the war, he began his medical practice with a focus on diabetes. He also became increasingly frustrated with his own declining health, which did not improve even after strictly limiting his diet. At the time, there were very few other treatments available for diabetes. A friend and former classmate of Dr. Frederick Banting, he became aware of the work being done on insulin at the University of Toronto. At this point, Banting and his student Charles Best had extracted their first impure mixtures containing insulin from animal pancreases. Even Banting “was not ready to recommend it.” Nonetheless, “in a fit of despair” Gilchrist visited his friend in 1921 and “beg[ged] for a shot”, which he received via stomach tube. The treatment had neither a positive or negative effect on his health. A year later, Dr. James Collip found a way to better purify insulin and its positive effects in treating diabetes would be demonstrated on Leonard Thompson, the first patient to receive this purified extract.

His relationship with insulin and diabetes research did not end there. He continued to work with Banting and Best in testing new insulin batches at the diabetes clinic established by the three of them at Christie Street Military Hospital in Toronto, where Gilchrist also worked as a doctor. In fact, Dr. Gilchrist was the ultimate trial participant, testing each batch of insulin on himself when they were ready for human use.

Outside of the work on insulin, Dr. Gilchrist was an avid golf player and enjoyed canoeing. He was also involved in various medical societies in Toronto. He passed away in 1951 at the age of 58.

— Written by Almas Khan